CHERUBS had a pro bono attorney for the personal restraining order I had to take out against Elizabeth at Breath of Hope in 2006 I believe. Long story, not going into that as that’s not what this post is about.

CHERUBS had 3 pro bono lawyers from 2 law firms helping us on the trademark and a few additional tossing us advice here and there. HUGE help! But 1 law firm doesn’t have the manpower to give us anymore and the other is about to take over a much bigger project for us.

So that leaves me to deal with the trademark issue legal stuff alone. And to be honest, I have no clue what I’m doing. The stress of having 1000’s of people depend on me and CHERUBS to protect Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness is enormous. I don’t want to mess this up. I need help. If you know of a trademark attorney who will help us, please let me know. They can be in any state as this is a federal issue. Please help if you can – these babies deserve to have the best representation to protect their rights. I am not that person to do that job, I am not qualified and I will not post that I am a legal expert or I am so intelligent that I don’t need a lawyer. I am bound to make some mistakes doing this alone (well, not alone – our Board is a huge help!), but we cannot afford to make mistakes. Taking on a trademark is not a small thing at all. This trademark is a huge ordeal, one that has to be stopped.

So that leads me to another notice. I will be taking down the timeline for a while. I will not be posting about any legal issues. I will no longer be keeping you updated on Elizabeth’s attacks or false allegations, slander, filings against CHERUBS with various agencies, etc. If you want updates on the trademark, you can go through the petition site to see the updates at the USPTO. Why, you ask?

For the first 3 years all this was going on, we kept quiet about it. Ignoring it did not help matters, it only enabled her and made her bolder. It got worse, so much worse that the restraining order was filed.

Then we went public, because other CDH parents were now being attacked and Elizabeth was filing accusations to try to have CHERUBS shut down. That was 2 years ago. You all have been pretty updated since.

But now, I am stepping back on the legal stuff and handing it all over to our new 2 pro bono lawyers to deal with. Whatever they deem necessary to do to stop the attacks, they have our blessing. Any court proceedings, filings, government intervention, criminal charges, etc – they have our blessing. 5 years of this is enough. It’s time to deal with this all once and for all and let the CDH community have some peace. We can’t thank our new lawyers enough, they are angels to help the CDH community this way!!!

And we can get back to supporting families dealing with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia and stop dealing with all Elizabeth’s drama and attacks. Too many CDH parents were put under the impression that CHERUBS is only about drama and stopping Elizabeth. That couldn’t be farther from the truth…. our site is drama free, we offer dozens of free services, the most CDH information on the net and with over 2700 families we offer the most support! 🙂 We’ve been here for 14 years with only one goal – helping families affected by CDH.

Now, we still have the trademark issue to deal with!!! I am still working on that video and we will release it this week. At the least, it will raise awareness! But we still need a lawyer! If you know a lawyer or you really want to help and just call lawyers and ask them to help us…. we would appreciate it so much!!!

On February 24, 2009, the following letter was sent to the Board Members of Breath of Hope, Incorporated. It is our formal attempt to end this trademark issue peacefully and to request that their organization do what is best for all families affected by Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.

This is our effort to resolve this particular issue and end this trial and to save the entire CDH Community 2 years of USPTO trial dates and to use our time and resources to better help CDH families.

The trademark trial is continuing, and will go forward, unless Breath of Hope, Inc. decides to resolve this issue.

What happens next is up to Breath of Hope, Inc and it’s Board Members.

——————————————

Ms. Doyle-Propst,

This communication is only for mediation purposes of attempting to resolve the “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness” trademark issue. For the sake of having a peaceful dialog, we will keep this letter to the point and not comment on any other issues. We hope that you can do the same and help us to find a realistic and positive solution to this trademark issue.

The trademark on “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness” has been extremely detrimental to the entire CDH community. The “pinkwashing” excuse has failed to give any valid reasoning of why Breath of Hope, Inc. has filed the trademark on “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness”. The idea that anyone could own “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness” has deeply angered the majority of the CDH community, as it has hindered Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness itself. Nothing good has, or could, come from this. It is our sincere hope that you will do what is best for the entire CDH community and remove this trademark.

CHERUBS, and several other CDH organizations, do not feel that we should have to ask permission from you or Breath of Hope, Inc. to use a common term that we all use daily. To ask us, CDH families and researchers, to do so can and will only hinder progress of spreading Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness. If you have not already read the comments at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/cdhawareness we would like to ask you to do so. You can also read the comments at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=56377210497.

Over 5700 CDH families, survivors, friends, pediatric surgeons, nurses and others have asked to stop this trademark – including many members of Breath of Hope, Inc (with some being past board members). It is from this group that we will pull witnesses that will tell the United States Patent and Trademark Office that “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness” is a common term.

On behalf of myself, CHERUBS and 1000’s of CDH families and medical staff, I would like to formally ask you to drop the trademark on “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness”. We all hope to work together to reach an agreement and better the CDH community.

If you agree to do so, we will agree to refrain from filing a Petition to Cancel on the “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness Day” trademark, even though we believe that every CDH family should have the right to participate without asking permission, being threatened or forced to give funds to Breath of Hope, Inc. We are all aware of your desire to own and control “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness Day” from other CDH organizations and, as an olive branch, are willing to allow the trademark for the day in lieu of the trademark on “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness” itself.

As always, all CHERUBS wants is for CDH families to have the support and information that they need, and to encourage Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia awareness and research. We understand that this is the goal of all CDH organizations. We ask that you will reconsider this trademark and focus on doing what’s right for families affected by Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, and furthering the support that Breath of Hope, Inc gives. It is not our wish to hurt you or Breath of Hope, Inc. We simply have asked for this trademark to be canceled and the term “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness” returned to the community who has been affected by Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.

Sincerely,

Dawn M. Williamson

President & Founder

CHERUBS – The Association of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Research, Awareness and Support

I’d like to ask you all to please say a prayer that Breath of Hope, Inc will help to resolve this trademark issue peacefully and also I’d like to ask everyone to please use the Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness Ribbon in your on-line profiles (Facebook, Myspace, Blogs, etc) tomorrow to show unity against the trademark on Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness. Raise a little awareness while trying to save CDH awareness. 🙂

If you need a ribbon you can use any posted here or you can have a personalized one made by sending your cherub’s photo, name and date(s) to ribbons@cherubs-cdh.org

1:00 pm EST tomorrow, February 11, 2009 …. please say prayers for all CDH families that this drama may end.

How else can you help? Sign the petition and invite family and friends to sign.

Ask Breath of Hope, Inc and it’s board members why this trademark and attacking other CDH organizations and parents with legal threats is necessary. Under their “company profile” you can see their current Board of Directors:

We suggest finding other ways to contact the board (Myspace, Facebook, personal e-mail) as there is no guarantee that their BoH e-mail addresses are real or that mail is not filtered by the CEO. This has been suggested by former BoH Board Members. We will not post their private e-mail addresses.

Thank you everyone for your support throughout this ordeal and for all you are doing to help CDH families!!!

On April 1, 2008, Elizabeth Doyle-Propst, CEO of Breath of Hope, Inc, filed a trademark request with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to own the rights to the phrase “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness” and a logo of a turquoise ribbon. This request was initially denied. It was resubmitted without the logo and went onto the Supplemental registry on September 17, 2008. Preceding and following this registration, Breath of Hope, Inc. filed complaints and sent threatening correspondence to other CDH organizations and families who used the term “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness”.

On December 4, 2008, CHERUBS filed a Petition to Cancel with the United States Patent and Trademark Office against the trademark “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness”.

It is our goal, along with 7 other CDH organizations and over 4000 CDH families and medical care providers who signed an on-line petition, that this trademark be canceled so that all people affected by Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia be able to raise awareness without the threat of lawsuits. Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia is a severe, and often deadly, birth defect that affects over 1600 babies each year in the United States alone and it would be extremely detrimental for one person or organization to dictate who can raise awareness for this birth defect. Because threats and complaints have been filed in the past and recently by Breath of Hope, Inc against organizations and persons using the term “Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness”, we felt that we had no choice but to stand up for CDH families and to fight for their rights to raise awareness.

It is our sincere hope that the United States Patent and Trademark Office will see that it is in society’s best interest to cancel this trademark. We also hope that Breath of Hope, Inc and Elizabeth Doyle-Propst will refrain from any further attempts to harm members of the CDH community and will handle this matter in a mature, professional, non-vindictive and compassionate manner and put CDH families and their awareness rights first and foremost – as should be the behavior of any non-profit organization for families affected by Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.